IFSC Lead Climbing World Cup Imst 2014

This August 1-2, the Tyrolean city of Imst, in Austria, hosted the last IFSC Lead World Cup before our athletes travel to the World Championships in Gijón in September. Home of the first refrigerated luge track in 1958, Imst put on a great show with spectacular climbing!

Imst’s Lead World Cup marked a turning point in the 2014 IFSC Lead Climbing season, as the mid-way point in the World Cup series and the last competition before the World Championships in Gijón, Spain. The competition was crowned by a home country victory for Austria’s Magdalena Röck on Imst’s spectacular sheltered outdoor climbing structure.

No top outs on tough final route

The route setters gave our athletes a true challenge this week: long, difficult routes with little rest and many awkward passages. None of the competitors were able to top the tough routes, making the competition all the more suspenseful!

On the men’s side, the beginning of the route, with a few wide reaches and a tough dynamic move, tired out the field, and the rest proved no easier. Most of the field was separated around three holds near the roof. In the end, Adam Ondra of the Czech Republic took gold with a score of 41+, Canada’s Sean McColl took silver with 39+, and Austria’s Jakob Schubert claimed bronze with a score of 39.

The women’s field saw no tops in the final, either, and some equally difficult passages that helped divide the field. Korea’s Kim Jain, who took gold in the first three Lead World Cups of the season, ran out of time while on the route and ended up in second place with a score of 50+. Austria’s Magdalena Röck, who took silver in the first three World Cups, won her first gold in an adult World Cup, on home soil to boot, with a strong score of 50+. Finally, Austria claimed a third podium spot with Jessica Pilz coming in third with a score of 44+.

Next stop: Munich (GER) Boulder World Championships

he 2014 IFSC Boulder World Championships will be held August 21-23 in Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. Host of the 1972 Summer Olympics, Munich welcomes the 2014 World Championships in its world- class Olympic Stadium!

More information on the event, as well as live streaming of the semi-finals and finals on: ifsc-climbing.org
As always, we are present on Twitter during competitions, so reach out with the hashtag #IFSCwc.